Football: BLUES' SHOW OF STRENGTH; PREMIER LEAGUE Moyes praise as injury-hit side triumphs.

Byline: By IAN DOYLE

Middlesbrough 0

Everton 2

DELIGHTED David Moyes believes Everton demonstrated their strength in depth with victory at Middlesbrough yesterday.

Two goals in five minutes midway through the second half from Andrew Johnson and James McFadden earned a deserved 2-0 win at the Riverside.

Both goalscorers had been drafted into the starting line-up as Moyes grappled with the absence of five key players.

Already without the suspended Mikel Arteta and injured duo Thomas Gravesen and Leon Osman, his selection options were further limited when Tim Cahill and Joseph Yobo were forced out ahead of yesterday's game.

And Moyes has praised the way his much-changed team responded to Saturday's 4-1 home defeat to Arsenal.

"The players have done well over Christmas, so today was an important three points for us," said the Everton manager.

"Coming up here without so many players and winning, it shows we haven't been too affected by the last game (against Arsenal).

"Cahill, Osman, Arteta and Gravesen weren't available, so we only had Lee Carsley and Steven Pienaar as recognised midfielders.

"It was a professional job. We scored a couple of half-decent goals in the end so I was pleased with the win.

"It was a big thing that we had a few out injured, and the result shows the depth of the squad and what we have available to us.

"The players who came in did really well in difficult conditions."

Johnson struck the opener on 67 minutes with his fifth goal of the season, with McFadden netting his first league strike since August 25 five minutes later.

Middlesbrough had come close after half-time when Tim Howard made an excellent save to deny Gary O'Neil.

And Moyes added: "The first half was a stalemate and wasn't as exciting as we have played recently. We had a few changes and were always struggling to get a balance to the team because of the players we had available to us.

"It took us a wee while to get going and the turning point of the game was probably the clearance off the line by Jole on and the save by Tim Howard.

"From that period we went on, and in the second half we did much better."

Moyes again refused to be drawn on McFadden's future, with Celtic rumoured to be lining up a fresh move for the Scotland international.

"James plays for Everton and scored a goal today, and that's all I'm going to talk about," said the manager. "His performance today was good.

"And I thought Yakubu was fantastic today. He led the line magnificently and Steven Pienaar did very well today too."

The 2-0 success was Everton's 11th away win of the campaign so far in all competitions and moved them - albeit temporarily - up to fifth in the Premier League table, a point behind neighbours Liverpool.

Of this team's top-four chances, Moyes added: "They told us it was a fluke the last time we finished fourth so we'll see about that. The competition is very tough and we aren't kidding ourselves about it."

CAPTION(S):

Andrew Johnson; Lee Carsley and Middlesbrough's Luke Young battle (left); Phil Neville celebrates (middle); and James McFadden (right); Andrew Johnson and James McFadden celebrate the opener